Assessing Risk: Human Resource Management, Labour Market and Workforce

By Pepper Parr

November 7th, 2023

BURLINGTON, ON

Part 2 of a 6 part series

Given the size of the staffing expense the Finance department has to look for ways to manage and finance the Human Resources expense.  There have been several hard hitting report from the Human Resources department

Municipalities like other service organizations rely heavily on human resources to deliver the range and quality of services that residents have come to expect. Human resource costs
(including benefits, training, etc.) as a percentage of the city’s 2023 gross operating budget is 49.2%.

The care and feeding of employees is a different challenge in today’s market. Creating an environment where staff feel appreciated has in the past result in competition between departments in pulling that truck. There was a time when Clerk’s was always the winner – they worked well as a team.

A significant risk to the corporation is the attraction and retention of staff. This has been a primary area of focus in recent years. As part of the 2023 Budget a significant investment was made to update the non-union compensation system to make it more market competitive and provide a foundation improving on our ability to:

• Attract and hire qualified candidates to fill vacancies

• Retain employees in a highly competitive labour market This update modernizes the current job evaluation system and compensation policies while realigning to the Council
approved market position being the 65% percentile versus our municipal market comparators.

The non-union compensation update was the first step to building a foundation for attraction and retention strategies.

Supporting and developing our current staff is just as important as attracting new and qualified candidates for vacancies. Over the next several years, workforce programs such as succession management, performance management and a diversity and inclusivity strategy also need to be enhanced/developed to address retention risks. With the introduction of our new Workday platform, we also want to seize the opportunity to integrate new functionality and transform our Human Resource business processes.

While approximately 160 additional staff positions were added in recent budgets, financial constraints prevented many other pent-up needs from being incorporated. This results in deficiencies in human capital, difficulties servicing a growing population, leading to risk in operations and compliance with legislation.

The City wants the best people working here to support our community and maintain quality of life. However, we are having a difficult time not only attracting candidates but also retaining our excellent staff particularly in high demand job categories (technical and professional positions).

Related news story:

Director of Human Resources drops a hard hitting report on the City Manager

Part 1 of the 6 part series.